Page 2 of Death Dance

“All right. I only know of Eugene because Emerick knows him. Who are you two?” I asked, marveling how three men could appear so much like their father; hair color and eye color distinguished them, which appeared to be the only traits inherited from their mothers.

I, on the other hand, had emerged a little clone of my mother with only one trait inherited from my father: vampirism.

It had taken a few months, but I had grown to be rather grateful for that sole inheritance.

“I am Alisander, and I was born during the Middle Ages and I’m the eldest of my father’s surviving children. Like you, I hunt those who have strayed. Dad likes telling people I’m younger than I am to trick them into complacency. Generally, I carry on the tradition of pretending to be younger than I am. To him, I will always be a little baby.”

I crossed my eyes at the thought of my father being a doting parent who treated his eldest living son in such a way. “I will do my best to stake you if you even try to treat me like I’m your little baby girl, Father.”

“You’re an attorney. That makes you a shark perfectly willing to bite me in the face,” he retorted.

I gasped. “I do not bite people in the face! I go for the throat, thank you. It’s much easier to get the blood flowing from the throat, and I don’t want to waste any of my breakfast. Please. Maybe some attorneys are rather like sharks, but I do have some manners when I eat.”

“Alisander, please try to teach your sister some better habits when hunting. We will not stop her from her rather distasteful habit of not wasting blood, but at least we can improve her skills.”

I pointed at the hole. “I handled that just fine. He is dead, and I didn’t even get a scratch. Well, outside of opening the hole enough to wiggle inside so I could stake him before draining him, decapitating him, and pouring holy water on his heart so he wouldn’t bother anyone again. I wasn’t really expecting him to go to ash from that, but I’ll take it. Why did he dissolve?”

“You destroyed his heart, and the magic that made him unraveled,” my father explained.

Alisander crouched and peered into the vampire’s den. “Is she hunting on pure instinct, Dad?”

“She is.”

My oldest brother whistled. “I’ll do what I can to help you, Pepper.”

I considered the middle of the three brothers. “And you?”

“I’m Benoit. My mother was French, and she passed during labor.” Before I could react, he waved his hand. “She had an illness my father did not know about, one that made her more likely to die during childbirth. She had, in passing, mentioned that she loved the name Benoit. She thought it was a strong, beautiful name, so he gave it to me. My mother is the only woman my father technically wed without the intention of separating from; he realized she would likely not survive, and he wanted her to be viewed with honor by her family, so he pulled some strings, wed her, and had some friends state they had been wed since before my conception.” Benoit’s smile possessed a sharp edge, which he turned on our father. “You’re a sentimental old man, and you can’t trick us. You may have tricked our sister, but we will teach her your ways.”

“I have irritated your brothers for I did not introduce you to them immediately. I only started gathering them when word spread that the ball is to be delayed due to the successful turning of twenty women in the attending brides broods.”

Color me not surprised. “That damned ball is going to be the death of me, I swear. I am quite pleased that the ball will have the wedding ceremony, but trying to arrange a date is turning into a complete nightmare. That the brides broods were able to turn women is wonderful, but you neglected to mention that all the turnings were of elderly partners of ancient vampires, and we’re only delaying so they can attend—and three of those women are in my brood!”

When I’d first become the matron of the brood, I hadn’t known how many of the men had mortal wives close to death. Upon finding out, I’d negotiated for the three in the most danger to undergo being turned, handled by her husband with backing from Emerick, myself, and Mistress Avalon.

The turnings had gone without incident, and the women settled into their new lives with their husbands in our brood, going to the brides broods for training. I’d run risk of pacing holes in the floor while we had waited for each to awaken. Per the brood’s tradition, she’d been laid to rest in our bed. In a new twist, her husband waited at her side.

I didn’t want to imagine their fear, waiting to see if their love would continue into an eternity or if all hope would die with the setting of the sun.

“Eugene, you are going to have your work cut out for you, especially should you decide to merge your brood with young Emerick’s. It is a good deal for you, and you will be in a position where you do the most good with the least stress. And don’t think you can trick me. I do not know how you turned out as you did, a nurturing spirit who would rather work in the background for the better of others. Really.”

Without missing a beat, Eugene engaged our father in a staring competition and answered, “You are the reason I turned out as I did.”

My father sighed. “Do I look like a nurturing father figure who would encourage such awful things?”

“Yes,” my brothers replied.

“Nonsense. Pepper, don’t listen to these silly sons of mine. They’re insufferable, really. Take them home with you. And do have one of them carry that nasty head. Did you have to keep it?”

“Yes. This nasty head is worth three million dollars.”

Eugene whistled. “I’d be keeping the head in that case, Dad. Why is this one worth so much?”

“He’s a rapist and a serial killer,” Alisander answered. “He’s been hunting the eastern seaboard for a decade, and he has over a hundred known kills to his name, quite possibly more that we don’t know about. You would have been an ideal target for him, Pepper.”

I nodded. “That’s why I stayed up past my bedtime for a morning snack. He never hunted near dawn or dusk, so I assumed he was finding somewhere to shelter. Once I narrowed down his general location, I decided to have a rather disgusting breakfast. I’ll have a proper dessert to make up for that nastiness later.”

My father sighed. “You’re never going to stop calling your husband dessert, are you?”